Gölpınar Dam
Coordinates: 40 ° 13 ′ 25 ″ N , 34 ° 42 ′ 29 ″ E
The Gölpınar Dam , also known as Alacahöyük Dam , is a Hittite dam from the 2nd millennium BC. At the archaeological site of Alaca Höyük in central Turkey .
history
A Hittite inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics found during the excavation of the site shows that the building was dedicated to the Ḫepat . This Hurrian goddess was born by Puduhepa , the wife of the Great King Hattušili III. adored, she called herself their servant. It is known from cuneiform documents that her son and successor Hattušilis, Tudhalija IV. , Died after a period of drought around 1240 BC. Built ten dams in the Hittite area. From this it is concluded that the Gölpınar dam is a work of Tudhalija. It served the field irrigation and possibly the drinking water supply of Alaca Höyük.
During the excavations in Alaca Höyük by the Turkish archaeologists Hâmit Zübeyir Koşay and Remzi Oğuz Arık , the dam was discovered in 1935 and partially exposed for the first time. Between 2002 and 2007 the dam was exposed, repaired and made usable again by the Turkish archaeologists Aykut Çınaroğlu and Elif Genç in cooperation with the Turkish Office for Water Management (Devlet Su İşleri) . About one million cubic meters of sludge was removed. The reservoir could then be used again to irrigate around 20 hectares of arable land.
Location and structure
The dam is located in hilly terrain, about 1.5 kilometers southeast of the settlement mound of Alaca Höyük in the Alaca district of the Turkish province of Çorum on the road to Karamahmut and the district town of Alaca.
The almost rectangular reservoir measures 110 meters from west to east and 100 meters from north to south. Three sides of the basin are bordered with quarry stone walls, the fourth side is the dam to the west. With an average depth of 2.5 meters, the pool has a capacity of 27,500 cubic meters. It is fed by various sources within the reservoir, the main source being in the southwest of the basin. At the top of the dam is a 130 meter long stilling basin , flanked by two canals. At both ends of the dam there were locks as well as drainage and overflow channels, some of which could be put back into operation. The total thickness of the dam construction is about 15 meters, the height above the water surface two meters. The dam body consists of stones the size of a fist that are made impermeable with clay . The bottom of the stilling basin is covered with clay.
To the west of the dam a wall was excavated with three bases, one made of sandstone , one made of limestone and the third made of andesite . In the basin on the crest of the dam, a base with the inscribed stele came to light. In addition, a piece of gold jewelry set with a ruby was excavated, possibly a pendant.
Dam with stilling basin and canals from the south
Canal and lock at the south end
Dam from the north
literature
- Aykut Çınaroğlu, Elif Genç: Alaca Höyük ve Alaca Höyük Barajı Kazıları In: Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı Vol. 25.1 TC Kültür Bakanlığı, 2003, pp. 278–288.
- Aykut Çınaroğlu, Elif Genç: 2003 Yılı Alaca Höyük ve Alaca Höyük Barajı Kazıları In: Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı Vol. 26.1 TC Kültür Bakanlığı, 2004, pp. 265–276.
- Aykut Çınaroğlu, Elif Genç: 2004 Yılı Alaca Höyük ve Alaca Höyük Barajı Kazıları In: Kazı Sonuçları Toplantısı Vol. 27.1 TC Kültür Bakanlığı, 2005, pp. 1-6.
Web links
- The Hittite Dam of Gölpınar in Alaca Höyük (PDF) Publication by the Turkish Water Management Authority, pp. 14–47.
- Alacahöyük Hittite Dam on hittitemonuments.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Yasemin Kuşlu, Üstün Şahin: Water Structures in Anatolia from Past to Present In: Journal of Applied sciences research , Volume 5, Issue 12.2009, pp. 2109–2116
- ^ Günther Garbrecht: Historische Wasserbauten in Ost-Anatolien In: Christoph Ohlig (Hrsg.): Wasserbauten im Kingdom Urartu and other articles on hydraulic engineering in antiquity P. 90 ISBN 9783833415029 Restricted preview at GoogleBooks
- ^ Remzi Oğuz Arık: Les fouilles d'Alaca Höyük entreprises par la Société d'histoire turque. Report préliminaire sur les travaux in 1935 . Ankara 1937 p. 10